


Tangible

by parodySphoria



Series: Corporeal Souls [1]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Homestuck
Genre: Daemons, F/F, Gen, I promise, M/M, Multi, because all i write is davekat, bluh, collection of oneshots, daemonfic, daemonstuck, davekat - Freeform, has Hussie released the epilogue yet?, hope you're all having a good [insert current year here], might change the name of this one who knows, ongoing short stories from one universe, other ships in different shorts from this series, other tags, probably not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 10:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14235378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parodySphoria/pseuds/parodySphoria
Summary: The boy is stood with a larger-than-likely scruffy black corvid on his shoulder, beak pockmarked and eyes wild, and the girl with a large black feline with leopard-like markings that glisten a deep purple in the light, who steps out of the green fire with her on soft, silent paws.Not that the children know what a leopard is or what it should look like, of course. They're trolls.





	Tangible

They step down from the light of the sun as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Shoes tapping lightly against the lab roof, as if they barely weighed anything. The children - they are still children - already occupying the desolate husk of a meteor eye them with caution, looking to them and the ever-mysterious animals beside them.

The boy is stood with a larger-than-likely scruffy black corvid on his shoulder, beak pockmarked and eyes wild, and the girl with a large black feline with leopard-like markings that glisten a deep purple in the light, who steps out of the green fire with her on soft, silent paws.

Not that the children know what a leopard is or what it should look like, of course. They're trolls.

The trolls knew of the human childrens' daemons, of course. They've been with them for their entire lives, they've asked questions about the shapeshifting creatures that kept them company and seemed to speak to them at times, but they are still fearful. The children - the human children - found it absurd that the trolls didn't understand the concept of having one's soul accompany them physically. The creatures haven't changed shape since few months ago, seemingly as the childrens' birthdays passed, the humans seemed to think nothing of it, so neither did the trolls.

It took getting used to, but things on the meteor settled into a steady rhythm. It still startled the trolls when the daemons would enter the room without their human, or would interject during conversations - though that was mostly Rose's that did that, Dave's own bird would simply sit alone in silence as far as the trolls were aware, and sometimes wouldn't be seen for days. Wasn't much for conversation, much like its human. The trolls had started to wonder if all daemons spoke, or if it was only certain types that could.

The trolls would never admit it, but they were jealous. They envied the humans for having these creatures so close to them, that understood everything they thought without question. They had their lusii of course, but the looming guardians could never really understand their young charges, as the trolls struggled to understand their custodians. Kanaya in particular was becoming obsessed with the idea of it, begging Rose for stories, to speak to her daemon.

Rose would tell the trolls all they wanted to hear while Dave sat quiet and angry in the corner, willing her to stop. She paid him no attention, and would tell of when they shapeshifted; of them settling when they came of age, of how dying to become a god tier severed the physical line between human and daemon, allowing them to go where they pleased for the first time since birth. She would begin to explain that a person's daemon is almost always the opposite gender to its human. At this point Kanaya raised her hand.

"Yes, Kanaya?" Rose asked, a smile playing at her lips indicating she was anticipating this conversation before it even began.

Kanaya knows to play to Rose's strengths, however, and never mentions how Rose seemingly steers each conversation she has, instead simply asking what is needed.

"You say they are opposing genders, but why is your own female?"

Rose smiles again, more warmly this time, completely ignoring Dave's barely masked sigh of frustration from the corner. He hates having to share their own culture with the trolls, she knows that, but she loves to educate, "Because I am, in our own primitive human terms, homosexual. The daemons represent the other half of our souls, what we most love in the world, and as I find myself captivated by the female form, by daemon reflects that. There are other causes for this minor alteration in the daemon form, but that is the most common."

Dave makes a point of loudly leaving the room, announcing he's had enough of storytime and is going to get a drink. Karkat looks around worriedly, weighing up Rose's education session against his loyalty before he gets up and wordlessly follows him, but Dave is long gone by the time the young troll reaches the first bend in the hallway.

Dave always seems to excuse himself when Rose starts trying to educate the trolls on matters like this, be it daemons or Dust or the technicalities of how they join everything together, beams of radiant gold light and stories of soulmates with complimentary companions. Often Dave can be seen wandering without his Daemon for days or even weeks before the two are reunited, and even together there seems to be a noticeable, turbulent divide between the two that surpasses the rift created by godhood. The trolls speculate, he knows they do, but Rose always stays quiet on the matter which he's incredibly thankful for.

While Rose’s daemon speaks freely to all, independent of her human, Dave’s can often be found darting around restlessly in the bowels of the meteor, or perched asleep behind one of the monitors in the hub, all disheveled feathers and wild eyes. None of the trolls ask why the two seem so wildly different in mannerisms, and Rose just shrugs any time Kanaya questions her on it, seemingly passing it off as Dave's stubborn aloofness.

Which brings them to today - entering a dream bubble for the third time that night. All of them are in the lounge when the scenery changes to the familiar beach of one of Meenah's memories. Dave falls off the couch as it disappears, his crow daemon lifting off his shoulder with an urgent squawk as its human lands in the sand with a look of pure indignation. Karkat sighs in aggravation as the table with his books on it disappears from in front of him and Rose looks into the sun and smiles, her daemon padding off to investigate this memory.

It isn’t long before two vaguely familiar figures make their way over the horizon.

"Hey look! People!" A high voice comes echoing across the sand. Rose looks up to see one of the many god-tier Nepetas making her way over to them, accompanied by a god-tier Feferi. One of the seers half-baked brilliant ideas suddenly lights through her eyes as it comes to a stable pathway in her mind. She looks at Dave and grins, but he looks back impassively from his newly settled place on the ground, cocking his head in question. His daemons flies over to Rose's briefly, seemingly simply touching her for a moment, and a look of panic crosses Dave's face as he struggles to stand up in the soft, shifting sand.

Too late, she's reached the two newcomers and is conversing quickly and quietly with them, gesturing back to the group. They look confused until Rose's daemon comes over and sits, watching them, and Nepeta's face clears with understanding and casts her eyes over to the trolls on the beach. She grins excitedly, dragging Rose and Feferi back over to the group as if it were a joint plan they were all about to revel in.

"Rose has had the most purrfect idea!"

Karkat and Kanaya look up from where they are brushing sand off of themselves. Terezi and Vriska finding the wall they were leaning against inexplicably gone but easily regaining their balance. Gamzee barely noticed the change in scenery, still quietly napping in what is now just a pile of sand.

"I believe that with their combined powers as fully realised god tiers, these two may be able to draw your daemons out, or more, highlight them in the physical world for you to see." Rose announces.

"It's selfish and it's bullshit." Dave calls from where he's knelt in the sand, brushing his cape down before standing. His crow daemon pecks his leg but he pays no attention.

"It will be their choice." Rose concludes, looking to the trolls, “But it would give them a fantastic opportunity to learn more about themselves than they thought possible, and greatly improve their chances of survival in the new session. You yourself know how invaluable it is to have a strategic partner who is literally your own mind.”

“No,” Dave states simply with his crow fluttering around him, clearly agitated, “it’s selfish to put someone through this. If you’re going to fuck up their lives I want no part in it.”

Rose looks at her brother and smiles sadly, which just seems to annoy him even more, “Like I said, Dave, it’s their choice.”

The trolls seem to look amongst themselves, taken aback by the suddenness of this proposition but admittedly excited, they’ve all been longing for this soulful companionship ever since Rose had first explained it to them, and they ached to know what form their own daemons would take. They all seem to nod amongst themselves. Dave sinks back to the floor, shaking his head but admittedly intrigued to see what would happen.

Kanaya is first, she steps between Nepeta and Feferi as Rose tells them to just let their powers take over - Heart and Life combined, bringing the soul to the physical world. As long as they both understand what they're trying to achieve, she says, they will have no problem completing it. The key is not letting the powers overwhelm you, but just letting them happen, like breathing or blinking.

Drips of light begin falling from Kanaya diagonally, not creating, but illuminating a small shape floating a few feet from the ground beside her. It shimmers and shines in a rainbow of colour - pinks, purples, blues and greens all mixed together in a creature not unlike a butterfly or moth, with watercolour wings the size of hands, a jet black body and eyes of the deepest jade. Kanaya looks towards this creature with a look of pure joy and amazement.

"I know you." She says to the creature, and it responds within her mind as well as out loud, a female voice that sings and echoes, "I know you better" and she is so happy she could cry.

Terezi steps up next, eagerly grinning at the two dead trolls as they link their arms around her. She makes some witty comment which makes Nepeta laugh, before telling her to be quiet so she can concentrate. Before long the droplets happen again, illuminating a creature not dissimilar to earth's komodo dragon, but with sharper edges and wise, clouded eyes. He looks towards Terezi and hisses lowly, flickering his eyes shut so that they could both delight in eachothers presence without sight.

Karkat glances towards Dave, almost apologetically, before stepping between the two girls. They link arms and he waits, closing his eyes. He waits and he waits, growing more nervous with every passing minute.

"Something's wrong." Feferi notes, letting go of Nepeta and stepping back from Karkat to look at Rose. Karkat opens his eyes and glances to Nepeta, who frowns at him.

"It won't work?" Dave asks, looking up towards Karkat with a hint of concern.

"It seems not." Rose notes apologetically, “I’m sorry Karkat, maybe we can try again another time? We may have overworked their powers, or…”

Karkat doesn't know what to do, his head feels heavier and everyone is looking at him and he... He can't breathe, suddenly, everyone sounds like they're underwater and his eyes are aching and he can't breathe and he... He leaves. He walks off and he ignores everyone's calls to come back or try again, he doesn't stay to see the others try, he keeps walking until the meteor is out of the dream bubble and he ends up in one of the many storage closets on the meteor, one he's used to hiding away in. He sits in there for a while, silent and angry and hateful. His mutation has affected his life already and he was so sure it would be over now, but it's not. It's never over. Every corner he turns there's another barrier based solely around him and things he doesn't understand.

Also now out of the bubble, but up on the roof and hours later, Dave is sat with his daemon. The perpetually dark sky rolls overhead as he watches the sun fall further behind the meteor. It’s not cold up here, but it’s not warm either – almost just a default state, as if the game forgot to load a temperature for the furthest ring. He supposes it probably didn't think it had to.

"Why didn't it work for him?" Dave asks out loud.

"He's a soulless piece of shit." His daemon responds, hopping off the edge of the roof and darting back up, bored.

"Teq I'm being serious stop being an asshole."

"Well then I don't know, why would I know?" Teq asks dejectedly, looking up at the human.

"I don't fucking know, aren't you meant to like, detect other daemons or something?"

"Yeah I'm a goddamn trick pony. Line 'em up I'll do daemon readings on them. Fuck, I thought we were supposed to be smart?"

"We are smart." Dave sighs, holding out a finger for Teq to perch on, "Just… He must get really lonely. It's going to be even worse now everyone else's daemons are out."

"Maybe you should go find him, then, instead of sitting up here with me and ignoring him like you keep doing. You didn’t even want them to get their daemons out, dude."

“Well fuck no but it’s different when they tried and it literally only didn't fucking work for him.”

“I reiterate, maybe you should go find him, and tell him that, because as far as he’s concerned you’re probably fucking hyped he couldn’t get his soul on out.”

"He's my best bro, he knows I care."

"Does he?"

Dave hums, annoyed, and flicks his finger upwards, forcing Teq to take flight before standing up and brushing his shirt and cape out, "Fine, but you're coming with me."

The bird caws in reluctance but follows him nonetheless, darting forwards in a rush to find Karkat before the human can. Teq always liked making things into games, mostly to try and forget how much tension there was between the daemon and its human.

Further inside the meteor, Karkat has been sat alone in the dark storage closet for over two hours. He’s almost surprised when he hears a tapping at the door, but he was also expecting it, on some level. He can never just get time to himself any more. He looks up tiredly towards the handle and counts how many times the person on the other side chooses to knock. Seven so far.

"Karkat open the door man." Dave calls through, "I don't wanna just walk in just in case you're jacking off in there."

"I'm not jacking off you asshole." Karkat calls back through, glaring up at Dave as he opens the door, his daemon flying in and perching on one of the pipes, "What do you want?"

"Some peace and quiet." Dave says, stepping in and shutting the door. He settles down on the floor opposite Karkat, cramped knee-to-knee in the lack of space.

They sit in silence, Teq darting from Dave's head to the pipes to Dave's shoulder back to the pipes. Karkat watches the daemon with tired, sad eyes. He almost never sees Dave’s daemon up close, and probably could have done without seeing it for a while longer, considering...

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No." Karkat says, pulling his knees up and away from Dave, eyes following the bird-daemon warily now. Teq regards him with a cool gaze in return, but Dave can feel his daemon getting quietly agitated at Karkat's reaction.

"Yeah you do." Dave assures him, and that's all it takes before Karkat explodes into this tirade of emotion that starts with blindly aggressive insults and simmers down to pitiful self-loathing, as usual. Dave leans back against the pipes and just takes the backlash, mentally willing Teq to calm down, it’s okay, we both know he doesn’t mean any of this, he’ll get to the point eventually, please calm down our hearts can't beat that fast. Dave grits his teeth.

“But I know!” Karkat says, and actually pauses for breath before continuing in a shakey voice, “I know you didn’t want us to do it and I don’t know why but, that’s all I could think about when I was stood there! That you’d be angry at me or my daemon would be awful or it would know I'm awful and I’d hate it as much as I hate myself and-“

Dave blinks, then, his breath stopping for one heart-wrenching minute and the cupboard descending into dead silence as he feels a wave of static wash over him. It’s as if someone’s just smacked the inside of his skull and his vision blurs for one sweet moment before he focuses again and sees the cause.

Teq is tucked up under Karkat’s chin, pressed right up against his neck and shaking visibly. Dave doesn’t know what to do, this has never happened before, he physically can't move. Karkat doesn’t know what to do either, Rose’s lessons of “Do Not Touch” reeling in his head over and over despite him not fully understanding the issue as the panicked, distressed bird presses itself further against him, weight fully against the troll's throat, wings askew and tiny heart pounding, worked into a frenzy by Karkat’s rant of self-deprecation.

The door opens suddenly, then, and light spills over the three of them for barely a moment before the crow blurs in motion, launching out of the storage cupboard at near lightspeed as Rose is forced to dodge backwards out of its path, clearly shocked.

“What just happened?” She asks, "What were you doing?"

Karkat speaks up, voice strained and faint, “I didn't, I- I thought they weren’t supposed to…”

Dave is panicked, he can feel Teq’s own anxiety rising up his face, burning even as he speaks, “I don’t know, he’s never done that before.”

“He?”

Oh. No. Shit. Dave can feel the bile threatening to spill up his throat as he sees Karkat looking at him, puzzled, glancing up at Rose whose eyes are wide with empathy and care, the one thing he was still trying to hide, the _one thing_. He hurts all over, sharply and suddenly.

He bolts. Pushes right past Rose and takes off down the hallway, running just to feel the metal under his feet, following his senses to find Teq, to ask what the fuck he’d just done, to hide again and maybe Karkat will think he just misspoke, maybe it was stupid to try and hide, maybe they’d worked it out already…

He rounds a corner, almost tumbling right down a flight of stairs and opting just to jump, freefalling down the levels rapidly, increasing speed and feeling the forced breeze push up and around his suddenly aching limbs as he plummets, cape flowing above him, the front of it brushing his heated face. He imagines for a moment not slowing down, picking up speed almost endlessly before finally hitting the bottom - he's never been to the very bottom levels. He thinks this for only a moment before he slows himself, reaching the level he can usually find his daemon flitting around.

The crow is there, panicked and throwing himself at one of the glass tubes and Dave realises then why he’s been in so much pain and the heat crawls up and out of his throat.

“Teq, stop!” He calls out, and finds he’s crying, choking back heart wrenching sobs as his little daemon throws his form against the glass in some sick act of self punishment, slamming his broken brittle body as hard as he can against the tube over and over again, rattling Dave's own bones, “Please, Teq, stop it!”

The crow falls to the floor, breathing heavy but not daring to speak, not daring to admit what just happened, Dave feels a rush of _I’m weak I’m weak I’m weak_ and he knows they’re not entirely his thoughts, as he skids to a halt beside the feathered mess on the floor and scoops up the bird - he'd forgotten how light he is in his hands - and cradling him to his chest as if he could hide him, save him from everything and tuck him away back in his chest where he belongs, where he'll be safe and out of reach.

Dave leans back, sat against one of the monster tubes with the wheezing bird wrapped in his arms, pecking lightly at his sleeve _I’m sorry I’m sorry I couldn’t help it_.

“It’s okay, Teq,” Dave breathes out, even though it isn’t, “I know. I know.”

They sit together for hours, closer than they have been for years, both breathing heavily as Teq continues to peck and cry while Dave reassures him it’s okay, that they’ll be okay, maybe Karkat will just think he didn’t hear right, maybe Rose will cover for him, maybe…

Maybe they could both just stay down here forever.

Dave can’t keep any of these acts up forever, he thinks, tears streaming out of his eyes now as he stares up at the lab ceiling, a painful, retching sob threatening to spill out and echo throughout the chambers above and around him. He closes his eyes, focusing on the feeling of feathers between his fingertips, and wills time to pass faster.

Back up in the main hub, some hours later, Rose and Karkat are sat at the table, drinking burning, film-coated coffee and discussing daemons.

“I know you’re upset about what happened in the dream bubble,” Rose says calmly, pretending not to notice Karkat’s dark, puffy eyes or the tearstains still marking his cheeks, “But I urge you to let us try again next time.”

Karkat laughs dryly, picking at the skin of his coffee and wiping his hand on his jeans, “What, next time we run in to a dead god tier Nepeta conveniently hanging out with a dead god tier Feferi? Yeah, great idea.”

“What do you think went wrong?”

“My mutant blood, again, obviously.”

Rose raises one eyebrow delicately, “You really believe your blood is the source of your trouble? Need I remind you you share the same blood as myself and Dave, and in fact, all humans?”

“What’s your fucking point, Lalonde?” Karkat sighs; he just wants to go lay down in a dark room and pretend today never happened, which is really fucking hard to do while Rose is lecturing and Gamzee’s trying to lift his stupid little pygmy goat into a vent shaft on the other side of the room.

“My point is,” Rose sighs, “you deserve this just as much as the rest of us. Everyone else is happy and I believe you would be too, if you yourself believed you would be.”

“Yeah, Dave seems really happy.”

“Dave is…” Rose pauses, biting her painted lip for a moment, “a poor example. He grew up under strenuous circumstances and has a… fairly unhealthy relationship with his daemon.”

“You mean how they’re barely ever seen together and that crow never fucking talks and Dave never talks to it-“

“Teq.” Rose says, her eyes giving away something akin to fond sadness, “His name is Teq.”

Karkat nods, remembering for a moment the feeling of feathers pressed against his neck, “Right. Teq. You and your daemon-“

“Nida.” The celestial leopard butts in, snaking herself around the side of the table and bumping her head against Rose’s leg.

“Nida. Sorry. You and Nida are constantly talking, to eachother and for eachother, but they never talk to eachother-“

Nida looks at Karkat with something akin to humour, as if she’s mocking the troll for not knowing better, “They do talk. I believe they’re probably talking right this minute.”

“I never see them talk.” Karkat admits, quietly, admittedly more to Nida than to Rose. He’s kind of ashamed of himself for calling Dave his best friend when he still clearly knows so little about him.

Rose pipes up, reaching a hand over the table to tap Karkat’s own gently, briefly, “You’re overthinking this, Karkat, and blaming yourself again.”

Neither of them speak for a while, and Nida pads back to the couch to lay down. The only sounds audible are the consistent, rhythmic knocking of horn and hoof against metal, occasionally punctuated by Gamzee swearing quietly.

“You should try again.” Rose says, “With a clear mind, and no expectations. I can arrange it before we reach the next bubble, if you’d like.”

Karkat debates it for a moment, pulling another layer of film from his coffee cup with kind of a relaxed disgust before sipping at the warm bitter liquid. He remembers again the feeling of a soft but frantic heartbeat against the pulse of his neck, feathers against his jaw, and feels horribly alone.

“Yeah, okay.” He says, “I’ll try again.”

It’s several days before they hit the next dream bubble, and Dave has been missing for the entire time. Karkat has been forcing himself not to worry – more, Kanaya and Rose have been forcing him not to worry. He needs a clear mind, they can all go and find Dave after they leave the bubble, it’s less than a few hours long, it’ll be fine.

The bubble changes while it’s only the three of them – three and two daemons – which Karkat is grateful for. If it all goes wrong again he’d rather not let his failure become a spectator sport a second time around.

It’s between ten and fifteen minutes before Rose calls out a greeting to two familiar figures on the horizon, Karkat isn’t sure whether it’s the same god tier Nepeta and Feferi as last time, but there’s definitely an air of apprehension about them, as if it might be the same ones and they’re worried about it going wrong again. He takes a deep breath, and Kanaya rests her hand on his shoulder.

“It will be fine, Karkat, stay calm.” Her daemon is fluttering on her other side, briefly landing on her shoulder before she takes off again, “Just remember to stay calm.”

Karkat’s senses are dampened even as Rose beckons him forwards, between the outstretched arms of these alternate versions of dead friends. He breathes deeply, closing his eyes and picturing nothingness for what feels like hours, time dragging him forwards and relaxing his muscles even as static starts to tingle at the edge of his senses, as he starts to feel dizzy, he focuses on that, nothing else, nobodies expectations and not the fact he-

“Oh my goodness.”

That was Kanaya. Karkat opens his eyes and blinks, looking to see everyone around him smiling… down?

He looks where they’re all looking, his heart tightening in his chest as he sees a crab, black bodied with beady eyes sticking upwards, legs almost the same colour as the troll's horns, starting at a bright red underneath its body and fading to a golden yellow by the ends, which are practically dug in to the ground, its purple tinted claws opening and closing slowly as it looks around at everyone staring at it.

“Wait a second,” it says, out loud somehow despite its tiny crustacean mouth, quiet but assertive, “Can you guys fucking see me?”

“Yeah.” Karkat finds himself saying, breathless as he crouches down, “Hey.”

The newly revealed daemon lowers its claws slowly to the floor, looking up at its human not for the first time since they came to be, “Holy shit.”

Nepeta and Feferi are clearly excited, hugging and dancing over to Rose to discuss the logistics of what just happened. Kanaya walks over to the troll and his crab daemon, crouching down a respectful distance away as her own daemon flutters around the crab, the two of them greeting eachother as though they’d known eachother this whole time. The trolls suppose they probably have.

“This is amazing. I didn’t know it’d be this amazing.”

The crab turns at that, snapping a claw, “Oh god, you’re gonna get all sentimental aren’t you?”

Karkat takes the bait, much to the obvious glee of his daemon, “Hey, fuck off, this is the first time I’ve actually seen you, cut me some fucking slack.”

“I’m not cutting you any slack you emotionally starved bulgemunch, you thought I didn’t exist! I was right there!”

“I couldn’t see you!”

They’re yelling at eachother, now, drawing attention from the other three and making Kanaya and her daemon visibly uncomfortable.

“You thought I didn’t even exist so you let his stupid little masochistic mute crow cuddle up to you like some kind of pervert!”

Karkat snarls at that, “Oh don’t you _dare_ bring him in to this!”

“Both of you stop it!” Rose shouts, then, rushing towards the huddle to pull Karkat to his feet, her daemon placing a paw on the top of the crab and growling lowly.

“You both still need to get used to eachother. This is not turning into just another way for you to argue with yourself, have I made myself quite clear?”

Karkat sighs angrily, looking around dejected as the scenery starts to shift and fade, back to the sandy beaches the memories seem to favour. He nods, just once, and Rose lets go of his shoulders, her daemon padding back beside her as she walks away, everyone else following her as Karkat realises he’s being left alone with his daemon. Alone. Again.

“I didn’t think it was going to go like this.” He admits quietly, sinking down to sit beside the crab. It isn’t small, he thinks, probably about a foot across, maybe half a foot tall?

“What, you didn’t think that deep down you’d still be just a big old wastechute? And it’s _he_ , not _it_ , asshole.”

“Sorry.” Karkat says, and he genuinely means it, “Do you have a name?”

The crab sighs, his claws opening and closing slowly, as if he were stretching, “I guess I probably should, but you never knew me to name me, so…”

“Do you want to think of a name? I’m not really great at shit like that.”

The crab actually laughs, turning towards his human and saying in an exasperated voice, “I’m literally you.”

“Right. Shit.”

“We should…” the daemon starts, but then trails off, shaking his whole body side to side, “No. Never mind. Awful idea.”

Karkat turns to him, “No, no, what were you going to say?”

“Fuck I was gonna suggest. I don’t know. Maybe we go ask Strider? But these are your emotions fucking with me right now and I’m not happy about it.”

“What, you don’t like Dave?” Karkat asks, genuinely surprised that any part of himself could feel like that – sure Dave’s kind of annoying sometimes but…

“It’s not that, it’s his fucking crow.”

“What’s wrong with Teq?”

“He’s fucking self destructive!” The crab exclaims, pacing as he continues in a voice reminiscent of his troll’s own, but smoother, echoing in his mind, “And don’t even get me _started_ on that stunt he pulled the last time you saw him, holy fucking shit, Rose explained that to you! She told you how fucking against the rules touching someone else’s daemon is and you just-! Fuck! Forgive me for not immediately warming up to a piece of shit bird who doesn’t respect boundaries.”

“He did it because I was upset.”

“No, he did it because _he_ was getting upset about how upset you were. Think about it. Who was comforting who there, really?”

“So Teq needed comforting, big fucking deal.”

The crab stops pacing, staring evenly at his troll, “Don’t you think that’s someone else’s job, shit-for-brains?”

“Whatever. We’re gonna go find them in a little while anyway.”

“Fine. I’ll remain nameless until we go track down your pathetic flush-crush and his stupid bird.”

Karkat bats at his daemon half heartedly, sinking further into the sand, “Shut the fuck up.”

It’s a couple hours later when Karkat finds himself walking into the deeper bowels of the meteor, echoing corridor after echoing corridor, empty lab after empty lab, endless staircases and broken glass tubes littering the dark depths. Karkat learned pretty quickly that he walks much faster than his daemon likes to, the crab explaining that it wasn’t as easy to keep up now as when he didn’t technically have a physical form, but, “…at the risk of sounding pathetic, please carry me if you’re going to keep walking like you’ve got feral barkbeasts chasing you.”

He also found it actually hurts when he gets too far ahead, meaning he can’t even be a dick about it. So Karkat’s walking, cradling his daemon in his arms, one hand supporting the underside of its shell and the other gently resting on top to keep him steady, the crab's legs tucked under him as best he can.

They get to the bottom of a particularly long, spiralling staircase, finding themselves in the green illumination of several monster tanks, their power switched off but the emergency lighting keeping the whole lab dimly lit in a sickly lime coloured light.

“They’re over there.” The daemon says, not aloud but inside Karkat’s head, and he forces himself to think back, clearly, asking how he knows, “because I can hear them, you deaf piece of shit, listen.”

He listens, and he can hear the quiet cooing of a bird, and the laboured breathing he knows to be Dave, asleep. Karkat places his daemon on the ground, quietly edging towards the corner of the room, around one of the large tank tubes.

Dave’s sat up, folded almost in half with his arms propped up on his knees and his head resting on them, face down. Karkat can see the sleek blackness of Teq resting in the triangular gap between Dave’s torso, his arms and his legs, both of them are gently moving as they breathe.

“Dave?” Karkat tries, quietly at first so the human doesn’t spring awake and launch a sword at him. The troll’s daemon nudges him forwards, a claw gentle on the back of Karkat’s leg, he tries again, a little louder and a little closer, “Dave?”

The human stirs, lifting his head up, shadeless, to meet Karkat’s own gaze, suddenly far more sympathetic than he meant it to be. Dave panics for a moment, scrambling around to try and find his shades before deciding he doesn’t care, that he’s too tired. Teq stirs on his lap, quirking his head up and turning towards the newcomers.

“Hey, I… uh…” Karkat starts, trailing off when he sees Dave’s face more clearly; he looks exhausted, his face patched with red where he’d clearly been crying. Karkat didn’t think Dave ever cried. He feels a sudden sharp pang deep in his chest, and he can’t find any words.

“Karkat feels like an asshole for what happened the other day,” The troll’s daemon pipes up, causing Dave to jump half a foot backwards and Teq to peck at his cape in frantic surprise, “also, hey.”

“Holy fuck,” Dave says, then, and it’s raspy and choked but it’s him and he’s speaking and that’s better than nothing.

“Second time’s the charm.” You laugh, nervously, daring to edge a little closer to the human where he’s still sat on the lab floor, leaning back on one arm with his crow perched on his leg, “can we just… sit? Talk for a while, you know?”

Dave’s eyes are still on the new daemon, and so are Teq’s. Karkat takes that as an opportunity to sit down, about two metres away from the pair of them. The crab chances moving forwards too, coming to stop just shy of Karkat’s leg.

“He doesn’t have a name.” Karkat explains, “But he’s always been around, kind of.”

“Kind of.” The crab reiterates, flinching back a little as Teq jumps down from Dave’s lap to investigate.

“He.” Dave repeats flatly, “Right.”

“Yeah, I know Rose said it was, uh, usually opposites, but… I guess me and Kanaya are just as abnormal as you and Rose, or whatever bullshit human thing is going on there.”

Dave goes silent at that, before making eye contact with Teq and then shaking his head _no, don’t_

“The bullshit human thing,” Teq says, and Karkat actually blinks in surprise at the sound of the crow’s voice, like Dave's but slightly higher and full of emotion, “and it _is_ bullshit, is that you only get a daemon the same gender as you if you’re queer, which some people are ashamed of, or not allowed to be, or you get fucking bullied your whole life even by your _friends_ -“

“Teq that’s enough.” Dave says, with more anger than you’ve heard from him since you’ve known him, “You didn’t need to fucking say any of that, and you don't need to say anything else.”

“Oh as if you were going to explain! Rose already told them all this, dipshit! You’re gay, so fucking what! You can’t change me just by wishing hard enough!”

Dave rubs his hands over his face, “Teq you know that’s not my issue, stop playing up to get the sympathy vote from these two, holy shit, it’s embarassing.”

“You know what’s embarassing?” Teq starts, and Karkat actually winces in anticipation, his daemon reflexively moving closer to him, stepping up on to his leg, “You. You’re embarassing. We’re meant to be presenting a unified front here and we always, _always_ fuck it up.”

“Guys, can you just-“ Karkat starts, but he gets cut off.

“Oh _I’m_ embarassing. That’s a new one, thanks, I haven’t heard that in well over six hours!”

Karkat feels his daemon think, “Holy shit are they always like this?” and he thinks back to be quiet, even though they’re both literally silent.

"Well maybe if I thought I could speak to more people I'd have better material for you!"

"I never said you couldn't speak to anyone, asshole! You shut _yourself_ away, not me!"

“Guys, shut the fuck up!”

They both stop, looking more exhausted than they did to begin with, and turn towards Karkat, now basically clutching at his daemon for emotional support.

“Both of you seriously need to sort your shit out. I don’t get what’s going on here but it sounds exactly like human bullshit from your useless dead planet which means it’s not even relevant any more! You need to fucking stop already, you’re clearly just stressing eachother out at this point.”

Teq laughs, “Oh great, the little guy with the brand new shiny crab wants to act like he knows what’s up. Great job big man got any more words of wisdom?”

Karkat’s daemon steps up at that, “Don’t you fucking talk to him like that you neurotic piece of shit, he’s trying to help you.”

Before Karkat or Dave can stop them they’ve launched at eachother, beak pecking at shell and claws closing dangerously around wings and pulling at feathers and both boys are shouting at them to stop it, both feeling the aching throbbing of shared pain and neither of them able to do anything about it except stick their hands in to the fray and hope for the best.

Except they both grab the wrong daemon, and Karkat gets to experience that same buzzing electric shock Dave felt days before as the human’s hand closes around hard black shell. Karkat’s own hand finds Teq’s smooth body, and both hands pull away from eachother, seperating the daemons and leaving both boys feeling disoriented, breathless and strange.

They let go at practically the same time, the daemons seemingly in too much shock to go back to their fight, or even move from where they're left.

Dave starts, “I’m sorr-“

“Don’t. Don’t be.”

They sit in silence for a while, their daemons unmoving, breathing slowly, calming down. Minutes tick by. Maybe hours. Neither of them really keeps track, Dave just knows he can’t really deal with being anywhere else right now, and Karkat sympathises with that more than the human could understand. So they just sit there, breathing, taking in everything. Karkat wants to ask Dave why he shut himself away down here, why he thought Karkat would care that his daemon’s male to the point he literally ran away from him. He wants to ask why Teq acted the way he did the other day, but he doesn’t, he just sits, feeling the minutes tick past slowly.

“Kinos.” Dave says, after what feels like forever.

“What?”

“His name, it should be Kinos. Key for short, maybe, I dunno.”

Karkat looks over at his daemon, sensing his approval, “What’s that from?”

Dave shrugs, looking down at the crab, hesitant to look up at the troll himself, “Mythology. They got it all wrong, but still.”

Karkat smiles, then, settling back against the monster tube next to Dave. He knows they’ve all got a long way to go before the next session and for once he’s actually glad for it. Maybe by the time they get there, at least one of them will have his shit straightened out. Maybe...

He dares to think, as the two daemons settle down next to, but not touching, eachothers people, regarding eachother in calm silence instead of aggressive protection, that just maybe something good can come out of this, something even better than just strategic forward planning.

But maybe that doesn't really matter.

**Author's Note:**

> Hoo boy.
> 
> So here we go, the first of a few short fics based in a Daemon AU I've had knocking around for a while in my external harddrive (all contents of my 1TB HDD are unfinished Davekat fics)
> 
> I'll be back to In Reality after 413.
> 
> See you all soon,  
> xo Teryn
> 
> PS. Karkat's daemon is a big Halloween Moon Crab. They're beautiful and I love them.


End file.
